Baltimore County Council candidate backs plan to house immigrant children in Timonium

Alison Knezevich, The Baltimore Sun

A candidate for Baltimore County Council says she supports plans to bring 50 immigrant children to a Catholic Charities facility in Timonium.

Democrat Laurie Taylor-Mitchell, who is running to represent the district that covers northern Baltimore County, said that the county should show compassion for children who are trying to escape violence Central America. Catholic Charities has proposed applying for a federal grant to care for 50 children at St. Vincent's Villa, which has traditionally been a facility for children with behavioral problems.

"As a mother, it is really heartbreaking to see these vulnerable children in such terrible circumstances," she said. "And I think we have a situation where the politicians in Washington are not coming together to solve what has become a humanitarian crisis."

She said discord in the nation's capital means the problem is being pushed to local communities.

"I'm disappointed in the way that our national leaders have conducted themselves, but in local government, we have to try to work together on local solutions," she said. "We need to treat [the children] with compassion and respect, and political wrangling is not going to get us there."

Taylor-Mitchell's opponent in the November election, Republican Del. Wade Kach, opposes the proposal and wrote to Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori to say he was "greatly alarmed" by it.

A grant request by Catholic Charities to the federal government is due Aug.5.